Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records; Extension of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Approval of Information Collection (Paperwork) Requirements

[Federal Register: April 26, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 79)][Notices] [Page 21662-21663]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr26ap10-95]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
[Docket No. OSHA-2009-0043]
Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records; Extension of the
Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Approval of Information
Collection (Paperwork) Requirements
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: OSHA solicits public comments concerning its proposal to
extend OMB approval of the information collection requirements
contained in its Regulation on Access to Employee Exposure and Medical
Records (29 CFR 1910.1020).
DATES: Comments must be submitted (postmarked or received) by June 25,
2010.
ADDRESSES:
Electronically: You may submit comments and attachments
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting
comments.
Facsimile: If your comments, including attachments, are not longer
than 10 pages, you may fax them to the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-
1648.
Mail, hand delivery, express mail, messenger, or courier service:
When using this method, you must submit three copies of your comments
and attachments to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-2009-0043,
U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
DC 20210, telephone (202) 693-2350, (OSHA's TTY number is (877) 889-
5627). Deliveries (hand, express mail, messenger, and courier service)
are accepted during the Department of Labor's and Docket Office's
normal business hours, 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., e.t.
Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and OSHA
docket number for the Information Collection Request (ICR) (OSHA-2009-
0043). All comments, including any personal information you provide,
are placed in the public docket without change, and may be made
available online at http://www.regulations.gov. For further information
on submitting comments see the "Public Participation" heading in the
section of this notice titled "Supplementary Information."
Docket: To read or download comments or other material in the
docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the OSHA Docket Office at
the address above. All documents in the docket (including this Federal
Register notice) are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index;
however, some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly
available to read or download through the Web site. All submissions,
including copyrighted material, are available for inspection and
copying at the OSHA Docket Office. You may contact Todd Owen at the
address below to obtain a copy of the ICR.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jamaa N. Hill, Directorate of
Standards and Guidance, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-3609,
200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone: (202)
693-2222.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent (i.e., employer) burden, conducts a
preclearance consultation program to provide the public with an
opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing information
collection requirements in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1995 (PRA-95) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). This program ensures that
information is in the desired format, reporting burden (time and cost)
is minimal, collection instruments are clearly understood, and OSHA's
estimate of the information collection burden is accurate. The
Occupational Safety and Health Act of the 1970 (the OSH Act) (29 U.S.C.
651 et seq.) authorizes information collection by employers as
necessary or appropriate for enforcement of the OSH Act or for
developing information regarding the causes and prevention of
occupational injuries, illnesses, and accidents (29 U.S.C. 657). The
Act also requires that OSHA obtain such information with minimum burden
upon employers, especially those operating small businesses, and to
reduce to the maximum extent feasible unnecessary duplication of
efforts in obtaining information (29 U.S.C. 657).
Under the authority granted by the Act, OSHA published a health
regulation governing access to worker exposure monitoring data and
medical records. This regulation does not require employers to collect
any information or to establish any new systems of records. Rather, it
requires that employers provide workers, their designated
representatives, and OSHA with access to worker exposure monitoring and
medical records, and any analyses resulting from these records that
employers must maintain under OSHA's toxic chemical and harmful
physical agent standards. In this regard, the regulation specifies
requirements for record access, record retention, worker information,
trade secret management, and record transfer. Accordingly, the Agency
attributes the burden hours and costs associated with exposure
monitoring and measurement, medical surveillance, and the other
activities required to generate the data governed by the regulation to
the health standards that specify these activities; therefore, OSHA did
not include these burden hours and costs in the ICR.
Access to exposure and medical information enables workers and
their designated representatives to become directly involved in
identifying and controlling occupational health hazards, as well as
managing and preventing occupationally-related health impairment and
disease. Providing the Agency with access to the records permits it to
ascertain whether or not employers are complying with the regulation,
as well as the recordkeeping requirements of its other health
standards; therefore, OSHA access provides additional assurance that
workers and their designated representative are able to obtain the data
they need to conduct their analyses.
II. Special Issues for Comment
OSHA has a particular interest in comments on the following issues:
Whether the proposed information collection requirements
are necessary for the proper performance of the Agency's functions to
protect workers, including whether the information is useful;
The accuracy of OSHA's estimate of the burden (time and
costs) of the information collection requirement, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
The quality, utility, and clarity of the information
collected; and
Ways to minimize the burden on employers who must comply;
for example, by using automated or other technological information
collection and transmission techniques.
III. Proposed Actions
OSHA is requesting that OMB extend its approval of the collection
of information requirements specified by the Regulation on Access to
Employee Exposure and Medical Records (29 CFR 1910.1020). The Agency is
requesting to decrease its current burden hour total from 720,187 hours
to 664,993, a total decrease of 55,194 hours. This decrease is the
result of the Agency using the latest NAICS codes covered by the
Regulation to update the number of establishments. The number of
establishments decreased from 5,108,244 to 4,790,859. The Agency will
summarize the comments submitted in response to this notice, and will
include this summary in its request to OMB to extend the approval of
these information collection requirements.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Title: Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records (29 CFR
1910.1020).
OMB Control Number: 1218-0065.
Affected Public: Business or other for-profits; Federal government;
State, local, or tribal governments.
Number of Respondents: 690,591.
Frequency: On occasion.
Average Time per Response: Varies from five minutes (.08 hour) for
employers to provide OSHA with access to records to 10 minutes (.17
hour) to maintain worker records.
Estimated Total Burden Hours: 664,993 hours.
Estimated Cost (Operation and Maintenance): $0.
IV. Public Participation--Submission of Comments on This Notice and
Internet Access to Comments and Submissions
You may submit comments in response to this notice as follows: (1)
Electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal; (2) by facsimile (fax); or (3) by hard copy. All
comments, attachments, and other material must identify the Agency name
and the OSHA docket number for the ICR (Docket No. OSHA-2009-0043). You
may supplement electronic submissions by uploading document files
electronically. If you wish to mail additional materials in reference
to an electronic or facsimile submission, you must submit them to the
OSHA Docket Office (see the section of this notice titled ADDRESSES).
The additional materials must clearly identify your electronic comments
by your name, date, and the docket number so the Agency can attach them
to your comments.
Because of security procedures, the use of regular mail may cause a
significant delay in the receipt of comments. For information about
security procedures concerning the delivery of materials by hand,
express delivery, messenger, or courier service, please contact the
OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY (877) 889-5627).
Comments and submissions are posted without change at http://www.regulations.gov.
Therefore, OSHA cautions commenters about submitting personal information
such as social security numbers and date of birth. Although all submissions
are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index, some information (e.g., copyrighted
material) is not publicly available to read or download through this
Web site. All submissions, including copyrighted material, are
available for inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office.
Information on using the http://www.regulations.gov Web site to submit
comments and access the docket is available at the Web site's "User
Tips" link. Contact the OSHA Docket Office for information about
materials not available through the Web site, and for assistance in
using the Internet to locate docket submissions.
V. Authority and Signature
David Michaels, PhD, MPH, Assistant Secretary of Labor for
Occupational Safety and Health, directed the preparation of this
notice. The authority for this notice is the Paperwork Reduction Act of
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3506 et seq.) and Secretary of Labor's Order No. 5-2007
(72 FR 31160).
Signed at Washington, DC, on April 20, 2010.
David Michaels,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 2010-9544 Filed 4-23-10; 8:45 am]
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